The Power of Attention
Everything in life responds positively to attention. People, objects, stocks of inventory, and money are but a few examples. For example, the best way to give attention to money is to account for it very accurately and promptly. Keeping accurate and up-to-date accounts of money is a powerful mechanism for attracting more of it from life. One small business owner decided to give attention to his accounts, balanced eight months of back bank statements, and miraculously received $5000 from nowhere the next day. If you bring your personal or business accounts fully and accurately up to date, money will constantly flow in your direction. However, money is not the only thing that responds to attention. So do physical objects and things. Consider this example: A businessperson was unable to make any substantial sales. He was told that he should give attention to clean his remaining current stocks. After making that effort, an order arrived equal to six months of normal sales! Another way of giving attention is to adopt the value of maximizing your use of a current resources -- such as money, materials, and time. Here is an example of how one manufacturer applied the value of maximizing the use utilization of a limited resource, resulting in a very favorable situation for the company: X, the proprietor of a company, engaged Y as his consultant to improve his business. Y, the consultant, noticed a machine, which X deemed not useful to his present business, kept in a sorry state. Y requested X to repair and repaint it and keep it ready for production. X laughed and said, "This machine is idle for last many years without any order. I can not spend money on it. As soon as I get orders, I will repair and repaint the machine." Y thought X was looking at things in the wrong way. Y told X, "If you keep machine ready for production and if you genuinely wish that this machine should yield profits, you will get orders. Life will favorably respond." X followed Y's suggestion. After a day or two, X's cousin, an engineer, came to his factory. The newly painted machine gained his attention. He took interest in the machine. He told X that he was interested in starting a new factory. If X could give the machine to him, he could earn profit from the first month onwards and a share of the income would go to X. An agreement was struck and the machine became a cash cow. Here is a closely related example of how giving things more attention by maximizing its use can elicit powerful response from life. “Low Carbon Ferro Manganese is one of the main raw materials we use in the manufacturing of welding electrodes. One day the manufacturer who supplies us with this material informed us that their plant was shutting down for maintenance, and as a result, there would no supplies of the resource coming for the next two months. Now this is an expensive material, so the stocks we kept on hand were held to a minimum. Also, there were only a few companies that manufactured this particular item. What’s more, the suppliers were all located in faraway places. In this dire situation, we had little time to arrange supply from other sources; and stocks on hand were now sufficient for only 5 days of production. In this difficult state, we made the decision that not a single particle of LCFM should be wasted. To that end, we alerted all the workers to be extra careful in its use. In addition, the shop floor was swept thoroughly because in our desperation even spilled material was collected, screened and used. Remarkably, two days later, from out of nowhere, the Managing Director of a company manufacturing LCFM in Orissa -- which is about 1300 kilometers away from our Pondicherry location -- visited our unit. Then over the phone, he instructed his plant to immediately dispatch all the needed material to us!” A third way to give an object more attention is to connect with its essence. For example, if there is a problem with that object, we can commiserate with it, and overcome the difficulty. Here is but one recent example: “My washing machine was making a strange noise for the past two days. I tried my best and could not figure out the problem. I was also wary of calling the service people since I had a pretty bad experience the previous time; plus I was charged heavily for replacing a component which could have been repaired and put back. Then I remembered having read that machines too respond to human feelings. I thanked the washing machine for the wonderful service it was giving me. I told it "I love you," touched it, gave it a pat, and then I consecrated the problem to the Spirit. I visualized the divine light falling on the washing machine. Then I drained it and filled it with water. After a few minutes later when I came back to put the clothes in the washing machine, I saw a one rupee coin outside the drainpipe. I realized that it was the culprit, as it had been was stuck somewhere inside and could not be seen with the naked eye. As a result, the problem was now solved and my washing machine worked fine. I was amazed to witness this response from life.” Of course, let us not forget that people too respond to attention. Every person wants to be attended to and be the object of greater attention and affection from others. Interestingly, when you give deserving people that extra consideration, they can blossom before your eyes. An instructor noticed that whenever he gave a little added attention and encouragement to a slower student, the student brightened, became more enthusiastic about what was being learned, and gave the instructor a perfect score at the end of the day. When we give greater attention to others, they not only come alive, but extraordinary conditions can suddenly break out, as we see in this startling episode: “I was overseeing a small unit engaged in the manufacturing of general purpose welding electrodes. The unit employed 10 workers. Most of them were from a nearby village and had a minimum level of education. That is, they could sign their name, but they could barely read and write. The packing operation in the unit involved sealing cartons and boxes with adhesive tapes, and then strapping them with nylon tape. These operations were done manually by the workers. I noticed at one point that there was no uniformity in their application of the tapes. So I talked to the staff, and taught them how to strap in a uniform manner. I also made the effort to show them how beautiful their work was when they did it correctly. To help them in their efforts, I made a template that they could emulate -- marking the position and level of tape/strap on the boxes. After some time, the workers developed the skill and experience to do proper packing without the aid of the template. Soon after, they were very happy when they received compliments about their packing from our distributors. This has had the effect of energizing the company so much that not only are the workers constantly beaming, but now the machinery has suddenly started yielding results double its rated capacity! In addition, the market has responded in a similar manner. Without any publicity or advertising effort on our part, our sales have unexpectedly doubled from their previous level! And in one final surprise, a bank came forward out of nowhere and extended additional funds to support our growth!” When you give others attention, not only are practical results generated -- such as the development of a new skill, or an uptick in energy and enthusiasm -- but extraordinary life response ones as well; such as machinery unfathomably outputting at double their rated capacity, or a sudden explosion in sales, or financial supporting arising out of nowhere. This being the case, why not consider who in your life deserves more of your attention. Once you make that determination, shower that person or group of individuals with all you can give. When you do, not only will they come alive; not only will they deeply appreciate your efforts; but a burst of good fortune will move in your direction! Self-Analysis Think of 3-5 areas of life or work where you can give more attention (e.g. to money, objects and things, people, etc.). Then give the required attention. Watch life respond! --Roy Posner 13:42, 14 June 2009 (UTC) Back to articles on Life Response http://server3.web-stat.com/4/humanscience.gif [http://www.web-stat.com/checkstats1.htm H] Category:Accomplishment Category:Life Response Category:The Secret